Thank You Rixa, for an honest look at birth trauma

So, I've had two amazing births. They were hard, but amazing. I was lucky enough to have everything go as planned. Well, kinda. There is the little issue of my husband not making it to Drake's birth. But I got the natural births I wanted. I was completely present, mentally and physically. It was just how I wanted. But I realize and acknowledge that I am one of the lucky ones.

There are so many women who prepare just as much as I did, and labor much harder than I did, only to end up with a traumatic birth. By traumatic, I'm not referring to just a C/S. I'm referring to traumatic as anything a Momma deems it to be. If they feel traumatized by it, then it is so. It's no one else's place to judge. I really do think women get PTSD from a bad birth experience. Not every woman with a poor experience feels that traumatized, but we should respect those that do.

What makes me really, really sad, is a Momma who is traumatized--only to be told it doesn't matter because her baby is healthy. It DOES matter. It's a fabulous and amazing thing that the baby and Mom are healthy. But for some people, the birth DOES matter.

Rixa is a woman I'd totally be friends with in real life, if we lived near each other. I swear she somehow enters my mind and writes my thoughts. One of her recent posts almost had me cheering out loud in my family room. I wanted to yell "You go girl!!! You tell them!!!" I don't even know who 'them' is, but I just loved her blog post titled "All That Matters".

Here is a link to it!

So, if you know anything about me at all, you know I fall in the Enya camp. Ya know, I did actually have quite a few Enya songs on my labor playlist. In any case, the her blog post will make me think twice before I ever tell another woman "Well he/she is here and healthy, and that's all that matters". From now on I think I'll be saying something along the lines of "I'm so happy you and baby are healthy and doing well. But I'm so sorry you didn't get the birth experience you wanted. I'm here if you ever want to talk about it.".